The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Aug 2026

Frontier Power USA acquires late-stage utility-scale battery storage projects and converts them into construction-ready assets, then finances, builds and operates those assets. The company acquired the 200 MW / 800 MWh Blanquilla project, which will use Eos Z3 long-duration battery systems, and placed a roughly $100 million purchase order with Eos for Phase 1. Financing for projects such as Blanquilla is expected to combine Frontier Power USA equity and debt arranged through KKR Capital Markets, and projects will be covered by a Technology Performance Insurance framework arranged with Ariel Green. Stella Energy Solutions is providing development and engineering services for converted projects and has prior experience developing over 4.4 GWh of utility-scale storage. As of the transaction Frontier Power USA has converted 1,280 MWh of usable capacity, is advancing about 5 GWh of acquired/selected/under-diligence projects, and identifies a pipeline of roughly 16 GWh. The company positions this raise and initial purchase order as supporting a repeatable model for acquiring, financing, building and operating battery storage assets.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2026

Photon Queue develops room-temperature, free-space quantum memory devices that store photons in optical loops using proprietary high-reflectivity mirrors and optical switches. Its approach delivers high efficiency and broad bandwidth without cryogenics, vacuum systems, or complex transduction, and is compatible with multiple wavelengths and quantum computing architectures. The company has deployed its first commercial devices at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Maryland, reflecting early customer traction with national labs and research institutions. Founded in 2024 as a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign spinout, Photon Queue is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The company serves applications in quantum computing, communications, and metrology and is working to scale product development, manufacturing, and customer deployments with the newly raised capital.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2026

PrismML has developed and open-sourced the 1-bit Bonsai series of large language models, with the flagship 1-bit Bonsai 8B containing 8.2 billion parameters and occupying 1.15 GB of memory. The 1-bit Bonsai 8B is reported to be about 14 times more compressed than comparable 16-bit models while delivering comparable benchmark performance. PrismML highlights real-world inference speed—approximately 44 tokens per second on an iPhone 17 Pro Max—and says the models reduce energy consumption by 4 to 5 times compared to 16-bit equivalents. The company notes potential for further efficiency gains if future hardware supports 1-bit inference. PrismML was co-founded by Babak Hassibi and disclosed that its work was supported by a $16.25 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures, Cerberus Capital, and Caltech. Vinod Khosla is quoted in the coverage calling the model a major technological breakthrough.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2026

Oran Development Company builds AI-Native Radio Access Network (AI‑RAN) technology and is the architect of the Odyssey RAN software platform. By integrating AI sensing and inference into the RAN, the company aims to enable telecommunications providers to generate new revenue streams and deliver mission‑critical capabilities across industrial, commercial and public sectors. The company is headquartered in New York City. It recently raised $45M in Series A financing from a group of strategic backers. Previous investors include Phoenix Venture Partners and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand operations and continue development of its platform.

Participated · Series B · May 2025

Avicena, based in Sunnyvale, CA, develops LightBundle, a microLED-based ultra-low power, high-density optical interconnect architecture. Its technology uses arrays of GaN microLEDs integrated onto CMOS ICs, coupled into multi-fiber cables and matching silicon detectors to deliver high bandwidth density, energy efficiency, reliability and lower cost versus laser-based solutions. The company targets AI datacenters, disaggregated memory fabrics, AI/ML, HPC, sensors, 5G and aerospace applications and says the approach leverages the large display ecosystem. Avicena positions its product to enable disaggregation of compute and memory and to grow system throughput while reducing energy impact. It will use new funding to scale its team and ramp its first product into production. Financially, Avicena raised $65M in a Series B, bringing total capital raised to $120M. AvicenaTech develops ultra-low energy optical links based on microLEDs, marketed as its LightBundle I/O solution. LightBundle is built from arrays of GaN micro-emitters that can be integrated onto high-performance CMOS ICs and leverages the microLED display ecosystem for high-volume, low-cost production. The technology is designed to eliminate copper-link bottlenecks in power, latency, reach, and bandwidth density and to enable higher-performing architectures in HPC, AI/ML, cloud computing, next-generation cellular radio, remote sensing, and aerospace. Avicena positions its products for chip-to-chip interconnects, memory disaggregation, and medium-reach links across datacenter and wireless use cases. The company is privately held and located in Mountain View, CA, and is led by founder and CEO Bardia Pezeshki. Avicena says it will use the $25M Series A to scale its team and build initial products for partners and customers.